The Serpents' Shadows
by AsunaXxXKirito
Summary: Acronian Valor, a loner at Beacon Acadamy and the only solo team due to a slight "miscalculation" of the number of students on Ozpin's part. He is a first year who is very silent and isolated due to amnesia. But when he is challenged by one of the top teams of the school and wins, he becomes very popular indeed, but he wants nothing if it, or the mask everyone wants to see behind.
1. Trailer

The Shadow, as his nickname was, collapsed to his knees in the middle of the fight, memories flashing through his head. He remembers a cage, and other people in the cage. He recognized some of them, knowing they were all dead because of him. He remembers surgeries, and that he was an Alpha. He remembers an escape, and dead bodies that littered the floors of a lab. "They" made him into a monster, a fighting machine.

"Whassa matter Acro? Shadow can't take any more?" Came the taunt from one of his opponents.

The Shadow said nothing as he fought off the broken memories and won. He stood up to his four attackers who were now trying to take advantage of his stumble. The one reptilian eye that shown a piercing emerald green under the black bandages keeping his head hidden from the rest of the world caught the movements, two from the front, one from behind, and an arial attack. He moved accordingly, taking strength from his fractured memories.

He drew a gleaming katana from the sheath on his back, and the other launched itself upward toward the arial attack, propelled by a high powered shot, it hit the figure in the sky in the jaw. The Shadow used a downward shot on his sheaths to jump up to the falling attacker, grab his falling katana, and spin kick him down toward the attack that was coming from behind. They would not be getting up.

'Two down,' The Shadow thought as his sheaths transformed into shoulder mounted guns while he was falling. He launched a volley of bullets at the remaining two attackers, but they dodged, barely. Sensing they were off balance, he landed as his guns transformed back to sheaths and launched himself toward the remaining challengers, his back flat and low to the ground. He swung his swords as he moved with an almost unparalleled speed back and forth past his attackers, knocking them with the flats of his twin katanas. Propelling himself with his sheath shots, he landed a final crushing blow to one, knocking her into the last one before both hit the wall, leaving cracks webbing out almost ten feet in diameter.

'They didn't stand a chance... I may have overdone it' He thought as he walked out of the arena, leaving the other team to be taken to the infirmary.

A/N: This is only set in the world of RWBY, not about the team as you can plainly read. However, the teams you know and love may make an appearance if I can work it in.


	2. Chapter 1

ACRONIAN:

Acronian woke up in an alley with one thought, Beacon. He didn't know where he was, why he was there, just his name and 'beacon'. But what was 'beacon'? His head was bandaged except for his right eye, a thought came to him again and he could hear faint voices in the back of his conscience. "Clear out the rest if the subjects, STAT! That's an order!" Came a female voice, he didn't recognize it.

His right eye hurt, a lot. He couldn't figure out what the words meant, he stumbled out of the alley clutching his stomach, he felt sick. Acronian shambled into the light of a light post next to a store and took a good look at himself, black bandages covered his entire head except for his eye... it was a green snake's eye. His chest was covered with a semi tight black shirt, which tucked into a pair of grey pants, held up by bandages covering his stomach. More of the same bandages covered his arm and sleeves. He wore black combat boots and a dark grey cloak with circular rips at the end, and a circular, device seemed imbedded in his back, near the base of his neck in the middle of his spine. His hands were covered with midway gloves.

'Where am I?' Acronian thought as his red eye looked all around, he noticed a gleaming object from the next alley way. He knew instinctually that this would help... whatever 'this' was. He walked, or stumbled, and seemed to reach it in a matter of seconds. He picked up the object and looked at it curiously. What he had in his hands was pair of thick, heavy sheaths, joined at the middles by a circular rotator, it almost looked like the indents matched the ones on his device in his spine. It also had thin compartments filled with belts of blue shotgun shells in crisscrossing packs that looked like they went around the chest area. He didn't know how he recalled what was on his back, but he knew these were his.

He pulled out a gleaming katana blade from one of the sheaths, unsure of whether he remembered them or not, they seemed somehow familiar. He sheathed the blade and tried putting the contraption over his shoulders, the straps fit perfectly over his chest, and then he heard a loud click as the sheaths lined up with the device on his back and attached. Instantly memories on how to work the scabbards filled his head. It was all connected to his head, though how it got like that he had no idea.

He remembered to calibrate it, the right one spun 180 degrees back and forth on demand and it's twin did the same after that. Next was the guns, he drew the two swords and dry-fired the four guns, two out the top, and two out the bottom. When he was satisfied he gave the mental command to have his sheaths transform into two shoulder mounted shotguns. It's black carbon fiber finish glinting in the dim light of a lamp-post. He dry fired them before finishing his calibration by transforming them back to sheaths and inserting his blades into them with practiced ease. He didn't remember where they were from, but he definitely knew he was no stranger to him at this point; he had been using them for a long time it seemed like.

The thought crossed his mind again; beacon. He decided to go to a nearby shop with its lights still on, it was probably very late at night. The signs on the window said "Dust sale!", he had no idea who the fuck would want to buy dust. The door chimed as he opened the door and entered the shop, the first thing he noticed was the many different colors of crystals lining the walls and under the glass counter for display. The old-ish looking guy behind the counter looked up from his ledger, he did not look at all surprised by the sight of a sword wielding, bandage covered, snake-eyed teenager walking into his shop.

"What can I do for you lad?" He respectfully inquired, but he was not prepared by the kids' answer.

"Y-you're not surprised by my eye?" Acronian asked in return, surprised.

The man gave a hearty laugh, "Good heavens no, I've seen worse, although that eye is rather intriguing. You are a snake Faunus, yes? Don't see many of those around." He said.

"What's a Faunus?"

The man was terribly confused, was this kid bluffing? "Where have you been living kid, under a rock?" He sounded slightly irritated.

"I'm sorry, sir, if I'm bugging you," Acronian was terribly embarrassed, "but I don't remember anything but my name, my swords, and a word, beacon." He fidgeted his hands while he asked, but he sounded entirely serious.

The man was take aback, here was a youngster who looked menacing, but here he was, embarrassingly asking him what his race was, and practically what Beacon Academy was. There was no other explanation other than the simple fact that the kid probably didn't know anything about anything.

"You really don't know anything?"

"Do I sound like I'm not serious? I don't even know where I am. Can you just tell me what beacon is and I'll be on my way."

The man was still skeptical, "It's the middle of the night kiddo, where are you going to go with nothing on you? You can't even get into Beacon without money or taking the test." He told him.

Acronian was still confused, "Test? What test? Is Beacon a school or something? And how do I get there? Can't I just walk?"

The man scratched his chin, "The entrance exam, my boy. Beacon Academy is a school to train huntsmen and huntresses, and if you wanted to walk I guess you could, maybe take a few days if you traveled hard through the forests, but it's dangerous because of the Grimm."

Again, a word Acronian didn't remember, "Uhh, what's a Grimm." He asked.

The man sighed, "Dangerous creatures, if you don't remember what those are you'll stand no chance against them. Listen, kiddo, this is for one reason and one reason only: I really feel like you're telling the truth, and believe me I'm good at judging people. How about I lend you a place to sleep for the night and I'll get you close enough to Beacon. After that, you're on your own, it's the most I can do.

A place to sleep didn't sound bad, he was developing a headache, and his swords did a 360 as he spoke, a silent agreement for 'yes', but the man didn't know that...

"How did you do that?" He asked when he saw the sheaths move on their own.

"What? Oh these," Acronian said, pointing to his swords, "Dunno. I just found them in an alleyway and they fit this device on my back, everything on them is controlled by thoughts." He wasn't sure that he should be telling the guy this, but he was giving him a place to stay.

The man was extremely surprised, "That stuff's not easy to find, boy, did you really just find them?"

Acronian decided it was probably good to tell him what he knew about the blades, "Well, yes and no. I DID find them in a nearby alley, but no, I remember I've had these for a long time, how to use them, what they can do, but nothing else." He answered as honestly as possible.

The man scratched his chest again, "Hmm, I'm not going to question you on it, but that's rather interesting, boy. I'm about to close up shop so we'd best be going." He jingled a ring of keys and Acronian went outside to wait while the man turned off the lights, flipped the open sigh to closed, and locked the door.

They two walked for about three blocks before they reached a decent looking two story house. To Acronian, it seemed like heaven.

"Welcome to my home, you'll be staying in the guest room on the right as you go into the entrance, the bathroom is down the hall on the left at the end before the kitchen. Acronian semi-knew what he was talking about, but he was sure he'd figure it out.

"I can't thank you enough sir, is there any way I can pay you back? Any way at all?" Acronian said as they walked in the front door and he spotted his room for the night.

The man chuckled, "Sonny, this is no problem, I needed something interesting to happen sooner or later. Forget about a payment, this is interesting enough for me."

Acronian had a feeling of intrusion once he nodded his agreement and stepped into his temporary room. He mentally disconnected the sheaths from his connector and removed them, setting them down on the floor leaning on the bed that dominated the room. There was not much else other than the plush-looking queen-sized bed. An antique desk was hidden by shadows in the corner opposite the door, and a few pictures hung from the walls. Near the corner opposite the door and the desk was a heater.

Acronian looked down at his feet and saw he was wearing simple black sandals over bandage covered feet, the bandages covered almost up to his knee and went over his pants. He didn't know how he'd get out of the clothes he had, but he was too tired to figure it out. He went to sleep in his clothes, on the floor near the heater after taking a pillow from the bed. The ground was a very soft carpet indeed, and he felt himself slip into darkness almost immediately.


	3. Chapter 2

ACRONIAN:

The next morning moved extremely quickly, Acronian had woken up promply at 6:30 and waited for the man to wake up and take him to Beacon. It was almost an hour before the old man had gotten up and came downstairs to see Acronian meditating, trying to recall memories.

Both their stomachs rumbled at the same time, "I think that's a sign," said Acronian, "That our stomachs require assistance." And they both laughed. Breakfast was a simple egg and toast breakfast, Acronian had said he didn't want anything fancy. Once the two were finished they left the house and got into a truck that was in the driveway. And sped off to begin Acronian's adventure. An hour of driving past and they could begin to see a very tall, very pointy structure on top of a hill, or was it a mountain?

Acronian pointed to the structure, "That it?" He asked.

The man nodded, "Yes, and I can only take you to the city outside of the academy, after that you are on your own." He told him, "But if you do make it there, which I have no doubts you will, ask to speak to Professor Ozpin. He's the headmaster and he can make the arrangements for your admission since they stopped taking them about a week or two ago. Just, be polite in front of him, wouldn't want to make a bad impression. And keep those bandages on, the people here can be pretty prejudiced towards Faunus sometimes." Acronian nodded his head in understanding. The rest of the drive was in silence.

The city near the Academy was huge, Acronian thought it was familiar. A memory was lodged in his head somewhere about this place, he just had to find it. He thought that if he could find a trigger, like with his swords, he could remember why and when he was here.

The man dropped Acronian at an intersection with directions to Beacon, and he became instantly confused, 'What's a Shamen street?' He thought to himself. He was still thinking hard about the directions when someone tapped his shoulder. Some reflex in Acronian's muscle memory identified it as a danger, and he drew a sword as he grabbed the hand touching him and flipped the unknown person to the ground. His sword pointed at the stranger's face.

"Ow ow ow ow! That hurt!" Came the sound of a small female voice. Acronian regained control of his actions and put his sword away.

He was terribly embarrassed, "Sorry, instincts." He said quietly. He just hurt a girl, and a cute one at that. She was still rubbing her back in pain, she had a dark blue hair color that flowed down to her mid back. She had a thin-ish, not-tanned-but-not-white body covered by a white short cut jacket, black shirt, incredibly dark red pants pants, and a pair of high heel black boots. Pink eyes stared back up at Acronian with curiosity, and pain.

Acronian backed away slowly, people were staring. He reached out a hand and lifted her up when she accepted it. "Sorry..." He said again, still shying away. He didn't think he'd be having to actually talk to people.

The girl reached out a hand and grabbed him again, "Wait," She said, "Are you lost?"

Acronian nodded, still looking away, "Do you know where you're heading?" She asked.

"Beacon," Acronian responded softly, he felt like talking less and less to this mysterious girl, "I was told to talk to a professor Ozpin."

"No need to be a shy guy, I'm actually starting up there next school year. So if you want to talk to the headmaster, I can try and get you there." She held out a greeting hand, "My name's Safire Shor, that's s-a-f-i-r-e-s-h-o-r, not the other way."

Acronian didn't really get a comfortable feeling around her, but he decided that since she was offering him a hand he should take it. At least he didn't have to decipher the list of names the man left him. "Acronian, Acronian Valor." He said when he shook her hand.

Once they were done Safire went and grabbed an umbrella that she must have dropped when Acronian flipped her, "Okay, let's go." Safire said with a smile and started skipping down the street almost in the opposite direction of the academy.

"Uhh," Acronian spoke out loud, "Isn't Beacon that way?" He shrugged and started walking after the blue haired girl. The duo found their way through the maze of streets while Safire talked and gossiped. Acronian just got stares, he was still dressed pretty much in bandages.

"Is everywhere like this?" Acronian asked, interrupting Safire's current talk on how much she liked her pet bunny back at home.

"Huh," She asked, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you see it, everyone's looking at me." His hands were clenched from discomfort.

Safire gave him a laugh, "Silly boy, look at what you're wearing, they're used to battle ready armors, not bandages. That's why they're looking at you, if you wanted incognito status, you should've dressed appropriately."

Acronian mumbled to himself, "I don't have any other clothes."

"What was that?"

"Nothing." They continued on they're way, fifteen minutes later they arrived at an incredibly large landing platform. Airships were everywhere, some were landing, others taking off, and some were being offloaded and loaded, exited and boarded, people were everywhere going about their business.

Safire signaled for Aconian to follow her, and they walked to one of the airships that wasn't doing anything. Safire got in and called out to no one in particular, "Pilot! Take us to Beacon." She flashed a card on a scanner on a wall, and the engine started up.

"Hurry up Acronian! Don't want to miss you're first time to Beacon!" Acronian nodded and jumped up to the rising aircraft. They flew the rest of the way in silence, a stark contrast to the Safire he just met. Acronian sat to her right, so he didn't think she'd seen his eye yet, 'She'll figure it out.' He thought to himself, she was capable of getting him to Beacon.

They landed just a minute later and Safire waved to the pilot, he waved back and took off again, leaving them in a large circular courtyard/landing platform.

"Come on this way, Ozpin is in the center tower, at the top but don't worry, there's an elevator so you don't have to walk, well I mean you CAN walk but I wouldn't recommend it." She continued on as her bubbly self while they walked and Acronian looked around, the place was amazing. Large towers, grand arches, vibrant courtyards, everything was on a massive scale. They walked into a building at the base of the center most tower, it was a lobby.

Safire walked to one of the desks, "Can I help you miss?" Came the chirpy voice of a female holographic receptionist.

"Yes, I have a friend would like to see professor Ozpin please. Is he in?" Safire asked.

The receptionist paused for a moment, "He is in, but he would like to know the reason for wanting to see him."

"It's for enrollment, but it's a little more complicated than that. The headmaster needs to hear this for himself." Safire turns toward Acronian, who is still in the back, near the shadows, "He's got a bit of an amnesia problem."

The receptionist paused again, "He says you may enter, but only your friend."

Safire knew that there was usually no way around Ozpin's words, so although disappointed, directed Acronian to the elevator.

"Good luck." Safire said as the door was closing.

A/N: I know so far it's a bit slow so far but I promise I'll try and get some action into the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 3

ACRONIAN:

The doors slip open soundlessly to reveal a large circular room, turning gears made up the roof, and a single lone desk was in front of a very large window. The chair behind the desk was facing away from him. Acronian exited the elevator and it hissed shut. He approached the desk until he was maybe ten feet away, he didn't know why but he prepared himself for an interrogation.

The chair turned and showed the person behind it, a grey-haired man with glasses, a cane, and coffee mug. His eyes were gentle but still retained a calculating look. He looked absolutely unfazed by the decently scary figure in front of him, "So you are the one who wanted to join late. What is you're name?" He asked.

"Acronian Valor, sir. But that is about all I know other than how to use my sword; I have amnes-"

"I am well aware of you're situation," Ozpin interrupted, "Now tell me, why do you want to join my academy? I have no foreknowledge of anyone like you, you don't show up in citizen registries, and to top it off, you're a snake Faunus that's covered in bandages like you're hiding something."

Acronian was staring at him with surprise, he recovered his bearings and words started slipping out of his mouth, "I'm sorry sir but even I don't know what's under these bandages, I just woke up this morning with a couple of memories, my name and Beacon. I figured that this is the place to go. I felt if I came here I could regain some memories like I did with my swords."

Ozpin nodded his approval, "And what will you do once you regain your memories? It is possible that you will turn into a completely different person." He said.

"I won't let that happen." Acronian said simply.

"Can you guarantee that?

"No, but I can certainly try."

Ozpin gave him a funny look, "I like your determination young man. Very well, I will make an exception for allowing you into the entrance courses. I assume you have some combat skills ingrained in you somewhere, but I doubt you will have any knowledge skills. So for now I'll exempt you from them, you take the combat exam and will be placed accordingly, your knowledge classes will be basic if that."

Acronian was surprised, "Thank you sir, I will try my hardest." He turned to the elevator to leave when he was stopped by Ozpin.

"One last thing," He said, "You should know that many of the students are quite prejudiced against the Faunus. So before you go I want you to remove some of the bandages covering your head," He pressed a button somewhere on his desk and a mirror slid up from a slot in the floor, "Don't worry you can put them back on later."

Acronian stepped into the elevator with his head buzzing, he was excited that he had accomplished the original goal his mind set for him, but he didn't like what was under those bandages. 'If anyone finds out, I'm dead.' He thought to himself. The elevator wasn't too terribly fast so it took a minute or two to reach the ground floor. He was met with a surprise when the doors opened.

There was a group of people carrying various video recording devices, 'A camera crew?' Acronian thought. They were currently interviewing Safire, over what he didn't know but he decided that he was going to listen in.

"-you think of the Faunus and the White Fang? Do you feel that Faunus should be treated by the public as equals?" The reporter was asking.

'White Fang?' Acronian thought, his right eye started hurting at the sudden thought, he felt like his mind was trying to remember something, but wasn't quite getting it. 'A trigger...' He thought, he just needed to get a little more in depth to what the White Fang was.

Suddenly Safire's response came clear into his head, "Of course not! I mean, take a look at the White Fang (Acronian's eye starts hurting again), they're violent murderers with no sense of what's right and what's wrong. I think the Faunus should just go away!" She said with what sounded almost what was a pouty voice. Acronian stood there, shocked.

The reporter turned back to the camera to continue the broadcast and Safire was released from the circle of cameras only to see Acronian standing there, his eye wide open for her to see. Her eyes widened when she finally noticed Acronian's eye was a snake eye, she covered her mouth and Acronian hung his head down and walked past her.

"Acronian wait!" She called out, grabbing his hand.

He spun around and whispered with a sword drawn and at her neck, "You should pay attention to what you're friends are, because with words like that, you just lost a very trusting one." He released her, "I should have stayed away, should have took their advice. If everyone here is like you and hates Faunus, then I'm the very epitome of everything you hate. Stay away from me from now on, I thank you for your help." He said and walked away.

"Where will you go now?" Safire called out, "You need my help to get around, don't you?"

Acronian gave a laugh, "Not anymore, I'm on my way to the combat exams, I have a map." He pulled out a sheet of paper with detailed images of where to go on it from underneath his bandages covering his waist. "Goodbye, Safire."

"Acronian wait!" She called out, but he was already out the door. She followed him but when she came out he was already gone. Safire sank to her knees, she had never lost a friend before.

Acronian made it to the practice arena where the combat exam was being held with no troubles, the directions given to him by Headmaster Ozpin were much clearer that those that the man had given him. The twelve people gathered for the exam grew silent when he showed up, feeling intimidated by the mysterious man in bandages.

Acronian silently handed the observers a note from Ozpin that said he was entered into the exam registry. They told him to wait in the stands for his turn. He didn't really pay much attention to the people going before him; he was thinking about his squabble with Safire. He didn't really know why he said the things he said, it was probably how he acted before he lost his memories.

"Mr. Valor, your up." Came the voice of one of the observers. Acronian had absolutely no idea what the exam was going to be, he should have payed attention. Little did he know that would have absolutely not helped in the slightest because each test was different.

"Your exam will be a little different from the rest, Mr. Valor, because the bots used in this scenario will be using live rounds as per request of the headmaster." The lead observer said.

'Huh? Live rounds? Why?' Acronian thought. Pillars of different heights and widths grew from the floor, and ten robots were activated for battle, each carried some sort of rifle.

"Begin!"

Acronian immediately dashed behind the nearest pillar, avoiding the barrage of bullets that came mere moments afterward. 'They really don't want me in, huh? Or is this just standard?' He thought to himself. He felt like his body was nagging to be moving, and moving fast, so he let his instincts take over and his battle began.

He wasn't using propulsion from his sheaths, he just started running, and running fast. He darted out from behind the pillar and was behind another before the bots could even detect him. They were still shooting at he spot he'd been at, but Acronian was winded, that probably took a lot of energy. His head was bubbling with excitement at the prospect of fighting, he turned his sheaths and drew his swords from his sides. Using the right sheath as his momentum, he propelled himself out from behind his hiding spot and started shooting with his left sheath as a turret. Two of the bots were taken out.

The bots' rifles transformed into axes, swords, and spears in sync and charged him. 'BLOCK!' Came a sudden thought in Aconian's head, his arm suddenly came up to block an incoming axe and then propelled himself forward, swinging a sword, one more bot down.

'What was that?' Acronian thought as his body movements started flowing on automatic. The observers were standing in awe as they watched Acronian's liquid movements, impossibly slipping through the barrage of bullets, blades, and robotic fists only to end it with a quick strike from a deadly sharp katana. Between bobbing out and behind pillars and bashing robots Acronian hadn't noticed one of the bots hanging from the ceiling like a spider. Acronian cut down the last bot on the ground by cutting it vertically in half, and the one on the roof dropped.

Again, a thought came to Acronian, 'ABOVE YOU!' It seemed to shout, but the warning was not enough to keep him from being stomped on by the last bot. The new bot landed and assumed a fighting stance while Acronian recovered to get a good look at this new one seemed different, unlike the other white, red, and green ones he had previously been fighting, this one was black and carried no weapons. Acronian's body started moving out of instinct again, he put both his swords in his sheaths and kept his hands on them. The sheaths caught the internal message sent by Acronian's movements and started charging up. 'But what's it charging?' He thought. That is until he actually swung his swords out of the sheaths as the bot started attacking. He swung his swords in an "x" shape and waves of light came from his blades and went through the bot like a hot knife through butter.

The result was a pile of melting metal and a stunned group of observers. The head observer swallowed and spoke, "Mr. Valor... I think it would be our honor to welcome you to Beacon Acadamy."

A/N: I know I said that chapters would be coming out faster but I've been too excited with new ideas to write anything, I've started outlining my SAO fic and I hope to start that once my Fairy Tail fic is done, or until I can't hold it in anymore, whichever works XD.


	5. Chapter 4

School started a week later, and Acronian had been placed solo in a dorm on campus. He was told after he arrived that most dorms were filled after the school year started with teams of four, so his being there earlier, and alone, was odd. Acronian sent a letter in to Headmaster Ozpin and he said he had had Acronian placed in a solo team due to his... condition... and bypass the traditional placement exam, which Acronian figured was probably a good idea, but the dorm he was put in was still meant for a four person team, so it was far too large for Acronian by himself.

Acronian squinted at his schedule one more time before the bell rang for the first day. He was in the regular school uniform, which took away most of his bandages. He kept the bandages over his head and neck, mainly because of Ozpin strongly recommending that he keep them on even during the school day, which technically is not permitted in the class dress code. Acronian left his room and attempted to find his first combat class of many in his schedule.

He had about ten minutes to get to his class before he would be late, and about five minutes of searching in the wing where he thought the class was determined that he had absolutely no idea where he was. The campus, despite its looks at a distance and from what he had originally seen, was huge. He turned a corner he had been around before he turned a corner and bumped into someone, inducing a very familiar sensation of flipping someone onto the ground.

"Ow, god dammit what was that for!?" Came a very familiar feminine voice. Acronian recognized her instantly.

"Oh, Safire, it's you... Sorry, instinctive thing." He said quietly before he stepped back a little, remembering the last time he saw her.

"Yah, so you've told m- Hey where are you going?!" She shouted after a now running away Acronian. She gave a little chase, but Acronian was far faster than she, and soon she lost track of him, "He could have at least let me say sorry..." She said, depressed.

Acronian managed to find his class as the bell rang, and he saw a group of students milling about in small huddles having quiet conversations. He sat down at a wall and examined the room he was in. He was in a similar room to the entrance exam, exept it was circular, black for the most part, and had a screen with a blank display for name, picture, and something called aura? His eye started hurting when he read aura, he had found another locked memory. The room also had stands for the students to sit and a row of weapon lockers with the students weapons in them lined up against the stands.

The professor, a big burly man with white hair, stood at the center of the arena and called for everyone's attention, "Now I know you are all eager to pick up your weapons and begin sparring, but this is your first class at this academy, so it is essential that you learn who you will be sparring with for the rest of your years here. Now that that is out of the way, if you could all take your seats in the stands alphabetically starting at my top left as 'A' in the last name, we can begin introductions."

This wasn't too terribly hard for Acronian to do with his last name being Valor. He sat down at the bottom right, in a particularly darker area, and most of the other students found their seat without very many issues. Once everyone had settled down the professor spoke, "Alright! Now that that's settled, welcome to Simulated Sparring Level 2, I am professor Hex. There are a few first years here amongst you second years, when I call your name will you please stand up. Talon Akins," A skinny boy with a huge scar on his face stood up. "Tanalia Sheele." This time a girl with too much makeup on stood up, "And finally, Acronian Valor." Acronian stood up and immediately was bombarded with questions.

"What's with the bandages?" Came a shout.

"You gonna remove that stuff?" Came another.

"Come one, take off the bandages, we wanna see your face!" This was the last comment Acronian heard over the chatter before Mr. Hex told them to sit down and be quiet.

"Acronian has a serious medical condition according from what I've been told. So as for the bandages, they stay on." Mr. Hex said, and one boy wearing a fancy set of armor over his uniform stood up.

"Did headmaster Ozpin tell you that? If he really did have a condition that has him bandaged up, then he belongs in a hospital." He pointed to Acronian, "He's hiding something, so I'm going to find out what. Professor, seeing as this is a sparring class, I'd like to challenge this Shadow here on the conditions of his bandages. If I win, they go, and he shows us his face." Acronian remembered the fight with the bots, he remembered how his instincts just kind of took over and here was nothing that could stop him. He felt confident that he could beat this hulking mass of armor, because even if his swords can't cut it, he has his shotguns.

Mr. Hex pondered for a moment before responding, "This is an introduction session, Mr. Watts, not a sparring session. I was not given the go-ahead to mediate challenges at this moment. Unless Acronian accepts, you ca-"

"I accept your challenge, Sparky." Acronian cut in, eliciting a few snickers from his remark.

The professor looked at Acronian, "Are you sure?"

"Sure, I need the practice anyway, I'm a little rusty. This is perfect." Acronian answered.

The two grabbed they're weapons from the lockers and took to the floor, Mr. Hex explained the rules, and the countdown started from 30.

"You're going to reveal that pretty face of yours, Snake Boy." The mass of armor said to Acronian, his weapon of choice being a gleaming great sword. The match board said the guy's name was Kilan Watts, and Acronian's profile was right next to his.

Acronian drew his katanas at the five second mark and took a mobile position while Kilan took a defensive stance, reading his sword. The buzzer sounded and Acronian immediately propelled him straight past the mass of metal, striking as he passed, but his swords did absolutely nothing.

"That tickled," came a voice from behind Acronian, "think you can dodg-"

Acronian's instincts kicked in and he shot straight upwards to avoid a dangerous swing towards his chest. Propelling himself downward he landed on the still swinging great sword, the sword flew out of Kilan's hands and he stumbled back.

"You're too open with your attacks, this victory is mine." Acronian said, pointing his swords at Kilan.

Aconian put his weapon in his locker and sat down in his seat, that's when he realized he was still in his school uniform while he was dueling. The clothes were a little wrinkled, but that would be fine after a quick wash. And his sheaths had propelled him fast enough to avoid a swing and land on it, that had surprised Acronian. Apparently Acronian had had heavy combat training before waking up without his memories, there's simply no other way he'd have been able to react that fast without it. Acronian sighed, he still had a lot to learn about himself.


End file.
